Third Coast Invasion! Austin At San Diego Comic-Con
By Richard Whittaker, July 10, 2012, 4:01pm, Picture in Picture
It's never hard for a nerd to find something cool to do in Austin, but, man, who doesn't wish they were in Cali for the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend? Fortunately, there's a bunch of Austin creators flying out to tell us exactly what we're missing.
Aspiring comic creators and fans of local artist David Marquez (Ultimate Spider-Man, Fantastic Four: Season One) will want to be up early on Thursday for Breaking into Comics the Marvel Way. That's the start of a busy weekend for Marquez: He's also got the two-part Digital Art panel with Brian Haberlin (Spawn) and Andy Schmidt (X-Men, G.I. Joe) on Friday.
UPDATE: Just got off the phone with Marquez, and his dance card has just exploded. Aside from adding two signing sessions at the Marvel booth, he's also hitting Marvel's Ultimate Comics panel, plus he'll be dropping by Archaia's talk where he'll be revealing his new 3D graphic novel. He also promised there will be a big announcement this weekend, but before all that, he has a huge honor. Marvel has asked him to add his Ultimate version of Spider-Man to the mural at the Palm Restaurant. That will put his work alongside industry legends like Humberto Ramos, John Romita Sr. and Jr. Marquez said, "I was really flattered when I was asked to add to it." Swing by the Palm, 615 J Street, at 1.30pm PST Wednesday to catch him in action
Another Spidey artist will be at the big show, but Joe Madureira has been busier with HD video games than four-color comics these days. Expect him to unveil some droolworthy artwork from the upcoming Dark Horse comic adaptation of Vigil Games' Darksiders II on Friday afternoon.
Every hard core geek knows that SDCC is the home of the exclusive collectible (oh four-foot SHIELD Helicarrier, you will be mine) but last year Mondo became the kings of hard-to-get. Their WWII propaganda-style posters for Captain America had the masses ready to take up arms in defense of liberty, justice, and awesome prints. An initial glitch in the vendor listings for 2012 looked like they'd be spending the convention in the ATX, but fear not, true believers! They'll be at Booth 437, with new prints every day. Mondo head honcho Justin Ishmael is on a plane to San Diego as these words hit the keyboard, and has promised 15 new prints and variants, plus a bunch of archive material up for grabs. Entertainment Weekly just dropped the art for three gorgeous Game of Thrones prints (color us in love with Vania Zouravliov's Aubrey Beardsley-meets-black metal stylings), but there's plenty more to come. If you're on the floor, keep checking their Twitter feed @Mondonews.
If you're hanging around the exhibitors, you should probably drop by Booth 2307 where the folks from Antarctic Press will probably be pushing Bad Kids Go To Hell hard. We've been waiting for the movie adaptation of this horror comic since back at Wizard World Austin Comic Con in 2010, when UT alum Barry Wernick told us his comic would be lensing locally at Spiderwood Studios. The trailer appeared last year, and now the full feature debuts off-campus at the Gaslamp Stadium Theater on Friday.
UPDATE: Ain't it Cool News boss Harry Knowles is a Comic-Con regular, which explains why he's both featured in and an executive producer of Morgan Spurlock's Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope. No shocker, that's screening Thursday.
If you want something truly original, then this may be your chance to get hold of a new piece by Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers creator, Longhorn and Chronicle cover artist Gilbert Shelton. He'll be drawing a new piece for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund in a master session on Thursday, and that will go on auction at the CBLDF live art auction at 7:30pm on Saturday in the Sapphire Room at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.
Shelton will not be the only Longhorn on the coast. UT PhD candidate Sam Cannon will be part of Friday's Subaltern Counterculture and the Strengths of the Underdog panel. He'll be discussing Daniel Muñoz Martinez's 1970s detective series El Pantera.
And even though they recently defected to Portland (boo!) everyone knows that Chris Roberson and Allison Baker will be honorary Austinites forever. On Friday the self-publishing duo will be breaking their MonkeyBrain Comics wisdom over everyone's heads. Then Chris gets to pull double duties on Saturday morning when he'll be part of IDW's Digital-First Comics panel. Speaking of erstwhile Austinites, his old Clockwork Storybook compatriot Bill Willingham will be swinging by the MonkeyBrain panel when he's not talking Fables for Vertigo.
Here's the full run-down:
Thursday 12
10am Breaking into Comics the Marvel Way feat. David Marquez, Room 7AB
10:30am Comics Arts Conference Session #1 feat. Sam Cannon, Room 26AB
1pm CBLDF Master Session: Gilbert Shelton, Room 11AB
1pm David Marquez Marvel signing, Booth 2329
3pm Bill Willingham DC signing, Booth 1915
4pm Archaia: How to Effectively Pitch a Story Panel feat. David Marquez, Room 32AB
5pm First Comics: 30th Anniversary Extravaganza! feat. Bill Willingham, Room 23ABC
5pm David Marquez Archaia signing, Booth 2635
5:45pm Vertigo: A View from the Cutting Edge of Comics feat. Bill Willingham, Room 6DE
8:30pm Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope, Ballroom 20
Friday 13
11am Chris Roberson IDW signing, Booth #2643
12:30pm Ultimate Comics Panel feat. David Marquez, Room 6DE
3:30pm The Art of Death and Darksiders II feat. Joe Madureira, Room 5AB
4pm Digital Art, part 1 feat. David Marquez, Room 11AB
7pm Digital Art, part 2 feat. David Marquez, Room 11AB
7pm Monkeybrain Comics feat. Chris Roberson, Allison Baker and Bill Willingham, Room 4
7pm Bad Kids Go To Hell, Gaslamp Stadium Theater
Saturday 14
11:30am IDW's Digital-First Comics feat. Chris Roberson, Room 24ABC
3pm David Marquez Marvel signing, Booth 2329
4:30pm Spotlight on Gilbert Shelton, Room 5AB
7pm Vertigo: Fables feat. Bill Willingham
Sunday 15
10:30am David Marquez Archaia signing, Booth 2635
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